The Complete Book of Discipleship Quotes

“Discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life. It’s not for a limited time, but for our whole life. Discipleship isn’t for beginners alone; it’s for all believers for every day of their life. Discipleship isn’t just one of the things the church does; it is what the church does.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“First-century discipleship was expressed as a servant-master relationship (see Matthew 10:24). Once accepted as a disciple, a young man started as a talmidh, or beginner, who sat in the back of the room and could not speak. Then he became a distinguished student, who took an independent line in his approach or questioning. At the next level, he became a disciple-associate, who sat immediately behind the rabbi during prayer time. Finally he achieved the highest level, a disciple of the wise, and was recognized as the intellectual equal of his rabbi.'"
2. Memorizing the teacher's words: Oral tradition provided the basic way of studying. Disciples learned the teacher's words verbatim to pass along to the next person. Often disciples learned as many as
four interpretations of each major passage in the Torah.
3. Learning the teacher's way of ministry: A disciple learned how his teacher kept God's commands, including how he practiced the Sabbath, fasted, prayed, and said blessings in ceremonial situations. He would also learn his rabbi's teaching methods and the many traditions his master followed.
4. Imitating the teacher's life and character: Jesus said that when a disciple is fully taught, he "will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). The highest calling of a disciple was to imitate his teacher. Paul called on Timothy to follow his example (see 2 Timothy 3:10-14), and he didn't hesitate to call on all believers to do the same (see 1 Corinthians 4:14-16; 1 1:1; Philippians 4:9). One story in ancient tradition tells of a rabbinical student so devoted to his teacher that he hid in the teacher's bedchamber to discover the mentor's sexual technique. To be sure, this is a bit extreme, yet it demonstrates the level of commitment required to be a disciple.
5. Raising up their own disciples: When a disciple finished his training, he was expected to reproduce what he'd learned by finding and training his own apprentices. He would start his own school and call it after his name, such as the House of Hillel.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“The Six-Fold Definition of Being Conformed to Christ's Image
130
1. Transformed Mind: Believe What Jesus Believed
130
2. Transformed Character: Live the Way Jesus Lived
135
3. Transformed Relationships: Love as Jesus Loved
139
4. Transformed Habits: Train as Jesus Trained
142
5. Transformed Service: Minister as Jesus Ministered
144
6. Transformed Influence: Lead the Way Jesus Led”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“Does the gospel we preach produce disciples or does it produce consumers of religious goods and services?”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“When Jesus commanded, “Make disciples,” he wasn’t simply referring to converts. He wants followers who follow — people who submit to his teachings and his ways. But because we’ve preached a different gospel, a vast throng of people think they are Christian/saved/born again when they really aren’t! We’ve made the test for salvation doctrinal rather than behavioral, ritualizing it with walking the aisle, praying to receive Christ, or signing a doctrinal statement.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“Rather discipleship occurs when a transformed person radiates Christ to those around her. It happens when people so deeply experience God’s love that they can do nothing other than affect those around them.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“In the world of togas, sandals, the Parthenon, temples, and little white homes perched on hillsides overlooking the sea, discipleship permeated Greek life-from aristocrats to peasants, from philosophers to tradesmen.
In the first century, the apostle Paul stood on Mars Hill and said, "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.... I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23). Paul's speech demonstrates that the Greek philosophers were confused about God. But they were also astute in passing on their confusion as they lived out discipleship and even created some of its language and technique.
The Greek masters' use of mathetes, or disciple: As explored in chapter 1, mathetes is translated "disciple." We can find the concept of disciple-a person following a master-among the great masters of Greece. Plato, Socrates, and Herodotus all used disciple to mean "learner" or "one who is a diligent student." These and other Greek
philosophers generally understood that the disciple's life involved apprenticeship, a relationship of submission, and a life of demanding”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“When discipleship takes a place alongside leadership, evangelism, preaching, worship, counseling, support groups, and other programs, it ceases to be what it was meant to be: the heart of what it means to be a Christian.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“When Jesus delivered the Great Commission, he revealed God’s plan for his church as well as for individual disciples. He charged the church to go to the world, because the world has no reason to go to church. Whether God blesses you with large numbers or small, if you’re making disciples, you’re leading as Christ led and instructed. So set worthy goals, lead by example, and leave the results up to God.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“I often pray, “Lord, I’m your servant. I’ll follow you even if it’s into apparent failure, because I have no rights to success as I define it, or as the church defines it, or as my culture defines it. I’m only interested in pleasing you and being successful as you define it.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“The principle behind discipleship does involve one person influencing another, which does result in a change in heart and mind.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“The evidence of salvation is living a life of transformation.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“So why don’t we automatically place discipleship at the center of every ministry? Perhaps certain words put people off: influence, vision, submission, accountability, vulnerability, confession, study, sacrifice, and discipline.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“DISCIPLESHIP: GOD’S VERY BEST FOR HIS PEOPLE Jesus taught that faith means to follow. That was his first test of a person’s faith (see Luke 9:23-25). Following, however, isn’t short term. Discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life. It’s not for a limited time, but for our whole life. Discipleship isn’t for beginners alone; it’s for all believers for every day of their life. Discipleship isn’t just one of the things the church does; it is what the church does. It’s not just part of the advancement of God’s kingdom; the existence of serious disciples is the most important evidence of God’s work on earth. Without enough of these workers, the task languishes and the work remains incomplete (see Matthew 9:35-38). Simply, discipleship means learning from and following a teacher. However, while we can define discipleship in these simple terms, something about the discipleship movement has never quite made it into the heart of the church. I find it particularly puzzling that we struggle to put disciple-making at the center of ministry even though Jesus left us with the clear imperative to “make disciples” (see Matthew 28:18-20).”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“statement: I find it both sad and appalling that we’ve used the great doctrine of justification by faith and God’s grace to teach that people don’t really need to follow Jesus to be Christians.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”1 The reasoning behind this dramatic statement by Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides the rationale for this book. Without discipleship, Christianity doesn’t exist, because following Jesus activates the Christian faith. Bonhoeffer expanded his thought: Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever, and are essentially inimical [detached] to the whole conception of following Christ. With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps even to put it into practice; but it can never be followed in personal obedience. Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth that has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. A Christianity of that kind is nothing more or less than the end of discipleship.2”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“The inclusion of the meaning "adherent" at the time of Christ and the early church made mathetes a convenient term to designate the followers of Jesus, because it didn't emphasize learning or being a pupil but adherence to a great master. So a "disciple" of Jesus, designated by the Greek term mathetes, was a person who adhered to his master, and the master himself determined how the disciple followed' Of course, that leads us to Jesus' call to all who were interested: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23).
Five hundred years before Jesus was born, a disciple was one who committed his all to follow a master teacher. The meaning remained the same until the time of Jesus, providing our first major clue about what Jesus meant when he told his disciples to "make disciples.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DISCIPLES
• A disciple abides in Christ through the Word and prayer (John 15:7).
• A disciple bears much fruit (verse 8).
• A disciple responds to God's love with obedience (verses 9-10).
• A disciple possesses joy (verse I I ).
• A disciple loves as Christ loved (verses 12-13).19
PERSONAL COMPETENCIES OF DISCIPLES
• A disciple submits to a teacher who teaches him or her how to follow Jesus.
• A disciple learns Jesus' words.
• A disciple learns Jesus' way of ministry.
• A disciple imitates Jesus' life and character.
• A disciple finds and teaches other disciples for Jesus .20”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“The Great Cloud of Witnesses
The writer of Hebrews wrote about the active pursuit of a faith that embraces discipleship:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)
The writer earlier created a list of heroes of the faith from the Old Testament era (see Hebrews 11:4-38): By faith Abel offered a proper sacrifice. By faith Noah built an ark. By faith Abraham packed up his family and moved. By faith Joseph ran from evil. By faith Moses chose a life of self-denial, confronted Pharaoh, and led the people through the Red Sea. By faith Joshua led the people around Jericho's walls. By faith Gideon showed courage in his obedience even though he was afraid. Samson, David, and Samuel-the world wasn't worthy of them.
These are our great cloud of witnesses; they taught us faith. Notice that with their actions, they showed us what it means to believe. What kind of disciples is the gospel meant to create naturally? The answer is people like these, whose faith embraced following their Lord. Without this kind of faith demonstrated by obedience, can a person really please God (see Hebrews 11:6)?
The lesson here is clear: Faith that doesn't result in action isn't faith, but something less. The apostle James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have
faith but has no deeds? ... In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:14,17).
Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2), taught James about faith. He demonstrated it by obeying in spite of the shame and suffering he faced and endured on the cross.
In fact, Jesus' own words about faith couldn't be clearer:
"Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." (Luke 6:46-49)”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

“Discipleship-the effort both to be a disciple and to make other disciples-is about the immense value of God at work in one individual's life and the resulting impact on other lives.”
― Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ